Just a quick breakdown of what I have found with the new Eyra / SHO combo. I had the boat loaded down with 25 combos, 7 Plano 3700s up front with hard baits, 11 – 3700 Planos with plastics in the rear, 8 Plano 3600s with plastics and 4 of them were loaded with weights and jig heads, enough to poison a small city! Anchor under the seat along with tools and misc. safety gear, 4 lifejackets up front, a net, all my line and extra little things. In the step cooler before the front deck I had about 15 pounds of plastics in bags as well as 3 Chatillion scales and my culling stuff and 30 Gallons of fuel. For batteries I have 3 – 31 series deep cycle and a 31 series AGM in the back with a Minnkota Fortrex 101 up front. Needless to say it was loaded! Break in was done with a 27 Tempest Plus.Break in was done near the marinas but unfortunately the weather was brutal with 25 mph winds and drizzle all afternoon. I did manage to get one twist behind the wheel. At 5700 rpm the boat ran 79.6 mph and I had trim left. The jackplate was buried to the bottom and I never even tried to lift with with the rougher water. Really didnt want to get myself into trouble that day with an 8 day fishing trip coming up. I felt that getting into the low 80s would have been a no brainer if the weather permitted.On Sunday we had pin flat conditions on Lake Erie which is as rare as it ever gets. We added 15 pounds of camera equipment to the front center compartment and a passenger and his 20 lb bag of plastics. On the run back with 25 gallons of fuel we ran 78.4 with some jackplate work. The boat handles like a dream, no chine walk, very easy to drive. The last test was with 3 guys on Tuesday. One guy was 180, the other was an easy 225 and I am 250. We ran 74.8 mph with all that gear.From driving the Eyra I have noticed it is completely different from the Puma FTD. It is more nimble and easier to drive. The hole shot even with that big ugly old prop is great and the boat is very trim sensitive. The motor was rigged a bit high in my opinion, they mounted it on the bottom bolts so I have way too much jack plate lift than I can ever use. I am going to have it dropped down two holes. Hopefully this week I will have some time to strap the cameras on the boat and take it for a good long twist. I already have 12 hours on the motor so the sky is the limit for working it.Hopefully there will be more to come soon. If we can only get someone to stop the rain for a while. On the lake we were fishing in Western NY, the Carp were swimming on peoples lawns!!!Here is a couple of shots from the trip.JP
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